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Authorship
Until January 2020, this Blog was the voice of an individual WI member. Over her 40 years of membership, our Blogger had made a very fine contribution to this and other Federations in England. With interests in crafts, reading and writing and in travel, she also took an active part in campaigning for women's welfare and education and on environmental issues. While she has now handed over the Blog to the wider Bucks membership, her archived blog posts are a testament to someone who always made the utmost of her membership, and a rich source of information about the part the WI can play in today's society.

29/11/2017 1 Comment

Resolution selection

27th November
The Resolution Selection Meeting was held at Gatehouse, Aylesbury this afternoon. The WI Advisers briefed us on the 5 resolutions on the short list to go to the Annual General Meeting at Cardiff in June next year. Every WI has the chance to send 2 representatives to hear a little more about the resolutions than is printed in the November WI Life magazine. They can then return to their WIs and hope to bring more information to their members before they hand in their preferred personal selection. In the old days, the advisers had to rely on written notes and do lots of homework for themselves but nowadays NFWI provides screened presentations and videos which can be used along side personal experience and research. This certainly makes the afternoon livelier and helps to lift the gloom induced by the topics under discussion. The two, one on Female Genital Mutilation and the other on Modern Slavery were second visits to previous subjects but more specific in their approach. The one on mental health is certainly very topical and may be a battle already half won. At first, I thought the problems of presenting a positive body image in the digital age was too lightweight to deserve a resolution but having listened to the presentation I could see there was more to this one than I had first considered. (Therein lies the importance of these selection meetings). However, the one on oral health strikes me as too minor to “waste” a resolution on. It is always difficult not to show one’s own bias when presenting the resolutions to one’s WI or indeed to an audience like todays---or on this blog!--- but obviously we will try. It is shaming that so many of the members feel that the resolution process shouldn’t take up part of two monthly meetings in the year. I am going to be very naughty and reveal an exchange in the break which absolutely made my day. A lady who had been travelling in Africa was talking about the abuse rampant against salamis! One of those moments which occur increasingly often at certain times of life. Of course, she realised almost immediately her mistake and we switched our sympathy towards the Somalis.
16th November
This morning there was the Jigsaw Swap coffee morning held in a member’s house. It was well attended by mostly WI members but a few Ramblers were there as well. Funds raised were split between the Denman College Appeal and Adoption UK so each charity received £50. One doesn’t need to buy or sell a jigsaw to attend: to sit around and talk is quite acceptable.
14th November
I have been meaning to visit the WI shop at Stuart Lodge and finally did so today. I didn’t do my homework beforehand so arrived when the craft people were engaged in a group session of decorating candles. Apparently the second Tuesday of the month there is always some kind of a craft going on. It didn’t matter as I could still browse around the shelves and chat to people I hadn’t seen for ages. Now I know about this activity I might bring some of the local craft group down---those who have never been to Stuart Lodge at all. It was a lovely drive south, past Chequers and under the golden leaves of the trees with the sun shining AND a roe deer stepped out into the road ahead of me, surveyed the approaching cars and returned the way he had come. Of course, I hadn’t got a camera so missed recording a really magic moment.

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10/11/2017 0 Comments

November already

Having been away from base for a couple of weeks, some of my news is second hand. I hear that the Craft Fair at the Gateway, Aylesbury was a great success and wonder of wonders, it was reported in our local paper complete with photos. Recently our WI seems to have dropped off the radar of the Bucks Advertiser. Someone kindly recorded the “Jammin’ with the WI” session on Wycombe Sound Radio for me. Didn’t Pat, Judith and Kath do well? Obviously, naturals at chatting around a mike! If you missed it, tune in to 106.6fm for the next recording as it is going to be a regular feature every third Thursday of the month. The site will be a wonderful way to promote our WI events.
Nearer to home I learn that despite gloomy predictions of possible closure because of lack of nominees for next year’s officers, the local WI found the necessary volunteers so we are set for another year. I didn’t think we would allow ourselves to fall by the wayside as we approach our centenary. But what is it about modern women that they think they are too busy to take on an office in the WI but are quite happy to undertake most of the jobs necessary for the running of the WI?
The local WI had a stall at the Farmers’ Market on the 5th November which was very successful raising over £200 for funds. There was no shortage of volunteers to donate prizes, to man the stall nor people to buy tickets for the wrapped tombola. We were very fortunate to have a bright dry day which encouraged the public to stand around and chat.
The Happy Stitchers met on Monday afternoon and on Wednesday evening the WI Discussion Group talked about robots in the workplace. Most present had done a bit of homework on the topic so it was quite an informative session. We went back to the attitudes of the Luddites to automation in the textile industry and on to the modern robots working in huge warehouses at trade distribution centres, drones and even (dare I say?) life-size sex toys. We are all involved and benefitting from programmed machines but fear for the loss of jobs for those unqualified to execute anything but the routine manual activities. However, in some instances increased and feared automation had resulted in more employment rather than the fall predicted eg. automated telephone exchanges. The face to face human interaction social tasks will not disappear---in fact they will become more and more important---so the youngsters need training here. We also thought that there should be more recognition of apprenticeships to educate people to take an active part in the world away from the virtual reality of the screens.

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